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MegaDoomer

By the year, your favorite wads

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The Doomworld Top 100 wads and Cacowards pick the top 10 releases from each year, but what they don't cover is, what's the single best release from each year in Doom's history?

This leaves me wondering what it would look like if instead of picking ten wads, there was a separate feature to pick only one wad from each year was to join the ranks of the most elite. How would envision the list looking?

Here is a good candidate at least for what mine would look like, at least based on wads I've played to date (many but not all):
1994 - The Evil Unleashed
1995 - Obituary
1996 - Memento Mori 2
1997 - Requiem
1998 - Phobos
1999 - Batman Doom
2000 - Darkening E2
2001 - Alien Vendetta (I'm counting when it was FIRST released)
2002 - 2002ADO
2003 - Scythe
2004 - RTC3057 Hub 1
2005 - Scythe 2
2006 - NDCP
2007 - Community Chest 3
2008 - Plutonia 2
2009 - Hell Ground
2010 - Speed of Doom
2011 - Vanguard (so far)

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i'd probably break your system with multiplayer wads, so i won't name just one for certain years. :p

1994 - doom2 (uac_dead for pwads)
1995 - fava beans
1996 - judas23 (plutonia for sp, memento mori for pwads)
1997 - brit11 (requiem for sp)
1998 - cyberdreams
1999 - demonfear, i guess
2000 - vrack
2001 - tvr!
2002 - greenwar (alien vendetta for sp)
2003 - scythe
2004 - zdctf mp1 (deus vult for sp)
2005 - scythe 2
2006 - vae victus 2?
2007 - rjspace9f (cchest3 for.. um, regular doom)
2008 - gayvox! err... plutonia 2, by a few hours
2009 - greenwar 2 (1024claustrophobia for sp)
2010 - speed of doom (special mention for best achievement: rjrandom)
2011 - plutonia revisited

and i have to say, both the top100 list and cacowards are abysmally wrong on account of dm wads

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If you guys seriously think that Aliens TC wasn't the best wad to come out of 1994, you're out of your minds. If Justin Fisher released that thing this year it'd still be incredible.

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People have opinions.

That wad is scary and it is a classic but the levels are outdated.

Also not really a problem since dew did mention this but I am looking for SP wads. If you want to do a multiplayer wad or a mod (something without levels), it can be included IN ADDITION to best SP however, just as dew did. An IWAD can be used if the levels were not made by ID Software (i.e. Final Doom, NRFTL, the Wraith games are okay - anything besides (Ultimate) Doom or Doom II). Also note I count Master Levels as a single IWAD, if anyone wants to use that. No Maximum Doom or other shovelware CD's though. If your favorite of the year is an IWAD but want to recognize a PWAD also, two separate entities like dew did is just fine.

AFAIK concerning release years of the commercial IWADS I can think of that are okay to use, Master Levels is from 1995, Final Doom & both Wraith games are from 1996 (in both cases only one individual 32 level set can be used though), and NRFTL (can be counted even though it's technically for XBox) is from 2010.

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dew said:

2008 - gayvox! err... plutonia 2, by a few hours


I would have honestly probably chosen ZPack, of all things, if PL2 didn't make it in '08.

I liked Torm's maps there and absolutely LOVE Vader's maps, E2M6, and Sector. That's more than enough fun for me!

But PL2 steals it for having a bit more consistency. I would say PRCP from this year is at least just as good though.

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1994 - Invade 2
1995 - Obituary
1996 - MM2
1997 - Requiem / Strain
1998 - Realm of Shades
1999 - Crusades
2000 - Darkening 2
2001 - Slayer
2002 - AV 2nd release, if it doesn't count, maybe 2002ADO?
2003 - Vrack 3
2004 - Vile Flesh
2005 - Kama Sutra / Death Tormention 3 / Scythe 2 (damn! cannot decide)
2006 - none
2007 - none
2008 - Plutonia 2
2009 - D2reload
2010 - Awakening / Nina Dobrev

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vdgg said:

1994 - Invade 2
1995 - Obituary
1996 - MM2
1997 - Requiem / Strain
1998 - Realm of Shades
1999 - Crusades
2000 - Darkening 2
2001 - Slayer
2002 - AV 2nd release, if it doesn't count, maybe 2002ADO?
2003 - Vrack 3
2004 - Vile Flesh
2005 - Kama Sutra / Death Tormention 3 / Scythe 2 (damn! cannot decide)
2006 - none
2007 - none
2008 - Plutonia 2
2009 - D2reload
2010 - Awakening / Nina Dobrev


2011?

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esselfortium said:

Dude, the year isn't even over yet. Also, it's seriously annoying for someone to be micromanaging a post-your-favorites list thread.


Yeah I kind of agree. :) I'll let some other slightly looser rules get by as well. :) (Like vdgg mentioning multiple PWADs for some years)

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I have another potential idea - from each year, what is the best SP (and optionally DM) wad that did NOT get a top 10 (1994-2003) or Cacoward (2004-2010 -- runner up's count) mention? Also preferrably it should be a wad from an author that did not get any top 10 or cacoward that year, since naturally most lists try to do only one or at most two releases per author.

Here would be a possible rough draft for me:
1994 - Enjay Doom
1995 - Cleimos 2
1996 - Osiris
1997 - Can't think of one
1998 - Inferno (by Chris Lutz)
1999 - Death Tormention 2
2000 - Pleiades
2001 - Enjay ZDoom 2001
2002 - One Bloody Night Ep 1
2003 - DooM Redemption (by Slayer)
2004 - Vile Flesh
2005 - Scientist 2
2006 - Death Tormention 3 (released in 05 but past Dec 10 so caco year 06)
2007 - Aeternum
2008 - ZPack (there are plenty more good maps here than just Thunderpeak!)
2009 - Claustrophobia 1024
2010 - F_Episode 2
2011 - My guess is it's going to be Jenesis. Just a gut feeling.

Some of the wads I mentioned were really robbed of an award too, IMO - i.e. better than at least a quarter or so of the stuff that did make top 10/caco's/runner-ups that year.

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1994 - RRWARD02
1995 - Doom City
1996 - Phobos - Relive The Nightmare
1997 - Requiem
1998 - Mars War
1999 - A Hell Day
2000 - ...
2001 - The Brotherhood of Ruin
2002 - Alien Vendetta
2003 - Hell Revealed II
2004 - Deus Vult
2005 - Kama Sutra
2006 - e6y3
2007 - ...
2008 - Plutonia 2
2009 - Doom 2 Reloaded
2010 - Speed of Doom

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Memfis said:

1994 - RRWARD02
1995 - Doom City
1996 - Phobos - Relive The Nightmare
1997 - Requiem
1998 - Mars War
1999 - A Hell Day
2000 - ...
2001 - The Brotherhood of Ruin
2002 - Alien Vendetta
2003 - Hell Revealed II
2004 - Deus Vult
2005 - Kama Sutra
2006 - e6y3
2007 - ...
2008 - Plutonia 2
2009 - Doom 2 Reloaded
2010 - Speed of Doom


Is this best of the year or best not to get a top 10/caco, etc.? From now on I'd prefer that be specified, so it's clear what the list represents.

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MegaDoomer said:

People have opinions.

That wad is scary and it is a classic but the levels are outdated.


Opinions or not, that wad was light years ahead of anything else at the time, and it blazed a trail for future mappers. The fact that Fisher was able to pull off some of the effects he did in a vanilla-compatible pwad are still incredible. I remember when that TC came out; people were more pumped about it than DOOM 2! Even if Aliens isn't your cup of tea, you have to admit what Justin Fisher did was way ahead of anybody else in '94. And since you specified that it should be the "single best release from each year", not simply "your favorite release from each year", that means it's Aliens TC.

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Ops, forgot about Ruinbros :) Then, Memfis, why not another demopack? My ruinbros demos are 2 years old, so you could record most of them 10-20% faster.

MegaDoomer said:

I have another potential idea - from each year, what is the best SP (and optionally DM) wad that did NOT get a top 10 (1994-2003) or Cacoward (2004-2010 -- runner up's count) mention?

In my list 1994,1998,2009 have nothing to do with 100 WADs of all time, so here you go :)
A few other suggestions for early years
1995 - Cleimos II
1996 - Odyssey (Odyssey2.zip by T.Elliot Cannon)
1997 - End1

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I don't think I know enough .WADs to definitively pick a favourite from most years, and I definitely don't know when most of the came out, so filling in a listing for this thread, for me, would be an awful lot of unnecessary effort.

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Vordakk said:

I remember when that TC came out; people were more pumped about it than DOOM 2!

c'mon, you had us nearly convinced. why ruin it with utterly silly fanboyism? did you by any chance want to say "a few guys i knew on bbs" but mistyped?

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dew said:

c'mon, you had us nearly convinced. why ruin it with utterly silly fanboyism? did you by any chance want to say "a few guys i knew on bbs" but mistyped?


Well ok, some people had that reaction. I personally was more excited for DOOM 2. I not saying it was the greatest thing of all time, but in light of what it did to bolster the efforts of total/partial conversion makers and modders as well as level designers, it gets my vote for best of '94. That of course was back in the old days when you could get noticed and even land a job if you made a really excellent DOOM level.

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Going through the Cacowards listings:

1994 - Eternity
1995 - Infinity
1996 - Icarus: Alien Vanguard
1997 - Eternal Doom (or maybe Hell Revealed. Both good!)
1998 - Phobos (honestly not that great, but it has fewer dark tunnels than EARTH.WAD)
1999 - Demonfear
2000 - ? (I don't think I played any of these)
2001 - ? (same)
2002 - 2002: A Doom Odyssey (maybe? I never bothered to finish it, but I played it longer than Alien Vendetta, so I guess it wins)
2003 - Doom 64: The Absolution (honestly sucks compared to DOOM 64 EX, but it was the only one off the list I played)
2004 - Daedalus: Alien Defense (maybe only an "Honorable Mention" for the Cacowards, but I liked it way better than HR2)
2005 - Suspended in Dusk
2006 - ?
2007 - KDiZD (only one I played)
2008 - ? (I'd rather put nothing than Eternal Doom IV)
2009 - ?
2010 - Unloved (honorable mention to Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch)
2011 - 1994 Tune-up Community Project (year's not over yet, but I don't think anything's beating this for me)

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Let's see....

1994 - Doomsday of UAC (aka UAC_DEAD)
1995 - ?
1996 - ?
1997 - Eternal Doom
1998 - Cyberdreams
1999 - Herian 2
2000 - ZanZanTC
2001 - Doom Resurrection Episode 1
2002 - Alien Vendetta
2003 - Void
2004 - Grove/City of the Damned
2005 - Scythe 2
2006 - Phocas Island 2
2007 - The Ultimate Torment and Torture
2008 - Thunderpeak
2009 - Demons of Problematique 2/Hell Ground
2010 - Unloved/Dawn of Reality
2011 - Vanguard (so far)

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Vordakk said:

If Justin Fisher released that thing this year it'd still be incredible.

As a product of it's time, it is very well done and impressive. But the thing is, they didn't have as good tools back than as we do now. To be honest, if it were released nowadays, it would be considered kinda mediocre (not level design wise, but utter lack of polish to today's standards).

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fullmetalvaran33 said:

2010 - Unloved/Dawn of Reality


I only wish I could get DOR to run at a playable pace...

Just as a side note, it also surprises me how many people pick Thunderpeak over just picking ZPack, but of course that's just my opinion. And I do recognize that, being a fan of KDiZD (to the point in which I think it's horribly underrated), I could easily have liked/enjoyed ZPack (both as a whole and certain maps in it) a reasonable amount more than the average community member too.

Really though, my argument boils down to this - in ZPack you get EVERYTHING Thunderpeak has, and even by the harshest standards there are at least a few other gems in the pack (Blackrock and Sector being the most commonly referenced), so by definition I don't even see how it could not be better.

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MegaDoomer said:

I only wish I could get DOR to run at a playable pace...

Just as a side note, it also surprises me how many people pick Thunderpeak over just picking ZPack, but of course that's just my opinion.

Really though, my argument boils down to, in ZPack you get EVERYTHING Thunderpeak has, and even by the harshest standards there are at least a few other gems in the pack (Blackrock and Sector being the most commonly referenced), so by definition I don't even see how it could not be better.

You have to play through all of episode 1 to get to Thunderpeak, and mediocre is about the nicest term I can think of for at least 80% of the rest of the wad. I don't think I've ever managed to force myself to legitimately play through more than a few maps of any episode of ZPack; it's almost all agonizingly dull and annoying throughout.

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esselfortium said:

You have to play through all of episode 1 to get to Thunderpeak, and mediocre is about the nicest term I can think of for at least 80% of the rest of the wad. I don't think I've ever managed to force myself to legitimately play through more than a few maps of any episode of ZPack; it's almost all agonizingly dull and annoying throughout.


I do not feel that I can emphasize enough that these maps are also unmissable: E2M6 (Terror Cube), E3M7 (Blackrock), E3M8 (forget name but it's by skillsaw nuff said), E3M0 (Sector). For the reception ZPack got, these maps should have been released separately also. I don't think you'll be let down no matter what your standards are, unless it's plain and simple personal taste.

And you don't have to play all the dull levels - just go into the console and type "map ExMy" without the quotes. Simple as that. No pistol start issues either AFAIK.

I also liked all of Torm's maps and a few others, which made it a very solid pack for me personally. Still, if you don't like Torm's maps, and judging by what I've seen clearly at least a fair chunk of the community fits into this category, that's only 4/28 good levels, which is just under 15%, meaning just over 85% is mediocre at best, so at least your statement holds out well in that case. :)

Anyways I don't want to turn this thread into a long-winded discussion or argument about ZPack but those are my thoughts.

ps I'm guessing you found KDiZD a big dissapointment too, my supporting evidence being: KDiKDiZD, whether or not it's still in progress.

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MegaDoomer said:

I only wish I could get DOR to run at a playable pace...

Just as a side note, it also surprises me how many people pick Thunderpeak over just picking ZPack, but of course that's just my opinion. And I do recognize that, being a fan of KDiZD (to the point in which I think it's horribly underrated), I could easily have liked/enjoyed ZPack (both as a whole and certain maps in it) a reasonable amount more than the average community member too.

Really though, my argument boils down to this - in ZPack you get EVERYTHING Thunderpeak has, and even by the harshest standards there are at least a few other gems in the pack (Blackrock and Sector being the most commonly referenced), so by definition I don't even see how it could not be better.


It's unfortunate you can't play DoR successfully. It's such a lovely city map --and I don't usualy like city maps. Maybe someday you'll get an upgrade to your computer or a less graphic-intensive version will be released (like with Grove, where you can download the original and an alternate version with less laggy trees).

As for ZPack, I could have picked ZPack, I suppose. I do like it, but I don't think episode 1 is really up to par with the rest of the WAD. Thunderpeak was the strongest part of episode 1. I liked episode 2 and really, really liked episode 3, but episode 1 keeps me from choosing ZPack as the best of 2008. Thunderpeak won out because it was released separately, and it's a tech-themed WAD I actually truly enjoy (tech WADs can be a hit or miss for me).

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MegaDoomer said:

I only wish I could get DOR to run at a playable pace...


What are your specs? I've considered trying it, but if your rig is as good or better than mine, no sense trying. :)

...Wait, is Vanguard actually out? Oh crap. I wasn't even aware.

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Processingcontrol said:

2034 - Mordeth E2


After THIRTY SEVEN YEARS (a whole generation!) in development, it ought to be truely epic.

Oh I forgot to mention it might just get the Mordeth award that year too.

May I ask, when is Doom Millenium due out? January 1, 3000? Or December 10, 2993 maybe?

/implied teasing here, of course

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